Supreme Court Campaign Finance Reform Bill
Reps. Hintz & Hilgenberg to Introduce Supreme Court Campaign Finance Reform Bill
www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/Mar07/mar19/0319hintzscourt.pdf
MADISON – Representatives Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) and Steven Hilgenberg (D-Dodgeville) announced today their plans to introduce a bill to allow for public financing for all Wisconsin State Supreme Court races. Wisconsin is currently in the midst of a Supreme Court race that may turn out to be the most expensive in state history.
"It’s time that we ensure that these Supreme Court races are decided by the people of Wisconsin, and not those individuals or special interests groups with the largest pocketbook,” said Rep. Hintz. “The candidates for this year’s Supreme Court race have already raised and spent nearly a million dollars combined, and outside special interests will undoubtedly spend even more. When a non-partisan race for a position requiring impartiality is heavily influenced by big money, the public trust is eroded. The best way to restore trust is to take money out of the equation. Enacting a public financing system for Supreme Court races will accomplish that goal.”
“This is not a new idea,” added Rep. Hilgenberg. “This legislation has received bipartisan support in the past. People are tired of outside money and interest groups dominating elections, and are left with the perception of pay for play. The legislature talks about addressing campaign finance concerns, but fails to act as yet another election is dominated by big money. The time is now for action on campaign finance reform.”
The bill would create a “democracy trust fund” for financing Supreme Court candidates and limit the amount of public financing benefits available to a candidate to $100,000 in the primary election and $300,000 in the spring election. The “democracy trust fund” would be funded with general purpose revenues.
The legislation would also greatly reduce the maximum amount that an individual or a committee could give to a candidate by establishing a $1,000 contribution limit. Currently individuals can give up to $10,000 and committees can contribute up to $8,625.
“By passing this legislation we can take another step toward restoring confidence in our electoral system. I am proud to work with my friend, Representative Hintz, to provide what’s necessary to get the ball rolling and moving FORWARD on this important task we have before us,” added Rep. Hilgenberg.
“This is the best way to demonstrate the positive attributes of public financing and maintain impartiality and integrity in our Supreme Court,” added Rep. Hintz. “We have an opportunity to take a big first step in fixing Wisconsin’s broken electoral system and we’re urging our colleagues in the State Legislature to join us to ensure that Wisconsin elections are decided by the many, not the privileged few.”
--------------------------------------------Why stop there?
Governor's race? -- It’s time that we ensure that these Governor races are decided by the people of Wisconsin, and not those individuals or special interests groups with the largest pocketbook,
54th Assembly race? -- It’s time that we ensure that these Assembly races are decided by the people of Wisconsin, and not those individuals or special interests groups with the largest pocketbook,
Indeed, the "public trust is eroded". This may be a good first step. I'm interested in the Republican Party response, as their platform explicitly states No public funding of campaigns!
Labels: Elections and Campaigns
posted by Vincent at 10:22 AM
4 Comments:
I thought Mark Pocan was working on a "clean elections" public financing bill for all state races, where a candidate has to meet a minimum requiement of X number of 5$ donations before qualifying for full public financing.
I wonder where Hintz would fall on that, favors it?
From the Wisconsin State Journal Dec 18, 2006
Another proposal, by Rep. Mark Pocan and Sen. Fred Risser, both Madison Democrats, would provide nearly 100 percent taxpayer funding of campaigns for candidates who raise a certain amount of small donations and agree to spending limits.
The proposals come in the wake of an election campaign during which 33 percent of Wisconsin voters said in a survey that they were "extremely concerned" about the "influence of money in state politics" and 58 percent said public financing of campaigns would make government work better.
Doyle, a Democrat, has said he endorses the disclosure requirement for issue ads. He is also looking at "beefing up" public financing of campaigns, said spokesman Matt Canter.
Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said Senate Democrats support disclosure and that the Ellis-Erpenbach proposal will get early attention. But she acknowledged that more taxpayer funding of campaigns would be a hard sell at a time when the state faces a potential budget shortfall of $1.6 billion.
Rep. Mike Huebsch, the incoming Assembly speaker, R-West Salem, said he's opposed to taxpayer funding of campaigns, but he's open to more disclosure of campaign spending.
www.madison.com
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Pocan also had this to say in 2002:
Campaign Finance Reform:
I, along with Senator Fred Risser, authored Assembly Bill 295 - The Wisconsin Clean Elections Fund - which will provide 100% public financing for political campaigns. This means that there will no fundraising required to run; in fact it is not permitted, and special interests can’t contribute to Clean Candidates.
Since candidates will not be raising money, it is more likely that more people will run and they will spend more time discussing issues and meeting with people in their own districts. In Maine they saw a 40% increase in contested primaries in the fall of 2000. By getting special interest and wealthy individual’s contributions out of politics I believe we can restore people’s faith in our government.
Candidates spend too much time fundraising and many potential candidates are scared off by the amount of money needed to run a race. It is clear that the current system fuels people’s perception of corruption within our government and indeed borders on legalized bribery.
While I believe that true reform will only occur through 100% public financing of campaigns, I believe one of the more comprehensive bills proposed this session that has a slight chance of passing is Senate Bill 104 (SB 104).
SB 104 includes comprehensive changes to cap campaign spending, limit special interest fundraising, and stop secret spending on political ads that evade campaign finance laws. This is a bipartisan bill, and I am cautiously optimistic.
Also, in 2006, the following:
http://www.wispolitics.com/
1006/061122PocanCFR.pdf
I haven't found or reviewed the bill yet.
The Wisconsin State Journal stated the following:
""
An estimated $1.7 million has been spent by groups outside of the candidates' campaigns seeking to influence the outcome of the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reported Friday.
""
The article also included statements from WMC:
""
WMC spokesman Jim Pugh said his group has free-speech rights under the Constitution to discuss issues surrounding the Supreme Court race and a right of free association to keep the names of its donors secret. He estimated his group has spent $900,000 so far on "issue ads" all of which are "very positive highlighting the issue of public safety . . . and Judge Ziegler's excellent record on this."
"We don't boost anybody's campaign," Pugh said. "WMC airs issue ads."
""
See the article here:
www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/
index.php?ntid=125812&ntpid=1
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